Wednesday wround-up

If you've not yet voted in the great "Can You See the Curia Artwork?" speed-poll (see story here), you still have a few hours in which to do so.


The United Kingdom's Intellectual Property Office is urgently seeking responses from stakeholders with regard to UNCITRAL's proposals on security interests in intellectual property. For details click here (you can follow the links there if you want more information). Incidentally, the IPKat wants to express his pleasure that the IPO is taking an interest and is prepared to involve itself; he wonders how many other national IP offices have done the same, since he hasn't heard so far of any equivalent initiatives.


Those IP haikus are still coming in thick and fast, together with some excellent non-haikus (though they're disqualified from the competition -- for which you can obtain the details here -- they are still liable to be published). Particularly enjoyable was a parody of Shakespeare's "To be or not to be" speech. Remember, the prize for the best IP haiku that is submitted in compliance with the rules is complimentary admission to CLT's annual Copying Without Infringing one-day conference, plus a decent lunch.


Have you ever been caught out, writing about how someone "patented a trademark"? The IPKat is thinking of making a short presentation for non-lawyers who are editors, reporters or writers on intellectual property, to help them get their IP concepts right. This will (i) help them to avoid looking like total wallies who don't know their subject, (ii) add to the credibility of their output and (iii) reduce the risk of irate IP owners (and, worse, their lawyers) phoning up and asking for corrections. The Kat needs a minimum of 10 people to make it worthwhile and the cost will be low -- somewhere in the area of £75 plus VAT. This little event will probably be in January/February and will be held in Central London unless there is substantial demand for holding it elsewhere too. If you're interested, email the IPKat here and mark the subject line "IP-write".


An English translation of the Brazilian law that will, depending on your perspective, (i) protect investment in the Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or (ii) crush meaningful opportunities for competition has now been made available on the IP Tango weblog. You can find it, together with a link to the original Portuguese version, here.


The PatLit weblog is holding a seminar on Tuesday 8 December at which the speaker is Professor Toshiko Takenaka (Associate Director, Graduate Program in Intellectual Property Law and Policy Director, CASRIP). The subject of her talk is "Patent litigation in the US and Japan: what's the difference?". The event runs from 5.30pm to 7pm and will be accompanied by refreshments. There is no charge for admission. For further details of the speaker and venue, and to reserve a space, click here.